Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus that is connected to a printing apparatus so as to be communicable with each other, generates raster image data in accordance with a printing request from an external apparatus, and transmits the raster image data to the printing apparatus, a control method for the printing control apparatus, and a printing system provided with the printing control apparatus and the printing apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
A printing system provided with a printing controller that receives a printing request from an external apparatus and generates raster image data in accordance with the printing request and a printer that performs printing that uses the raster image data received from the printing controller has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-72198).
The printer disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-72198 is shifted into a power saving state under a condition where the printer is not used for a certain period of time, for example. In the power saving state, power is supplied to an interface circuit configured to receive the data transmitted from the printing controller, but power supply to an image forming unit and a control unit is stopped.
When the above-described printing controller disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-72198 receives a print job (printing request) created in a page description language (PDL) from an external apparatus, the printing controller generates the raster image data in accordance with the print job. The printing controller subsequently transmits the generated raster image data and a control command (such as a command for instructing start of the printing or a command for specifying a sheet feeding stage, a number of copies, a printing layout, or the like) to the printer in the power saving state.
When the raster image data and the control command are received, the printer in the power saving state resumes the power supply to the image forming unit and the control unit to cancel the power saving state. Accordingly, a preparation operation for performing the printing is executed to increase a temperature of a fixing device of the image forming unit to a fixing temperature, for example.
As described above, according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-72198, after the printing controller analyzes the page description language and generates the raster image data, the generated raster image data and the control command are transmitted to the printer. The printer executes the preparation operation for performing the printing after the raster image data and the control command are received, and it therefore takes time to execute the printing that uses this raster image data since the raster image data is received.